"Time for drastic steps": Delhi High Court criticises Income Tax department for 498-day delay in filing appeal

The Delhi High Court recently criticised the Income Tax (IT) department for filing an appeal after a delay of nearly 500 days [Principal Commissioner of Income Tax 4 v M/s National Fertilisers Limited]..The Court said that deliberate dormancy like this cannot be countenanced and that the time has come for officials to be penalised for such conduct.A division bench of Justices Rajiv Shakdher and Girish Kathpalia further stated that despite anguish expressed by courts at all levels through various judicial pronouncements, there has been no change in the attitude of officials in some of the government departments.“Largely, behind such delays on the part of government agencies in initiating appropriate legal proceedings lies extreme laxity, negligence and dereliction of duties on the part of government officials. Even in this hi-tech “click of mouse” age some of the government officials are yet to come out of their love for “snail pace” style of working,” the Court remarked.It is even worse when such delays are aimed at simply completing formalities so that the government appeals get dismissed on the grounds of limitation thereby benefitting a party, the Court said.“Time has come to take drastic measures qua lethargy caused litigation delays, lest the chaos in judicial functioning percolated further. Time has come when due diligence has to replace negligence which pervades some of the government agencies as in the present case, so that justice does not hang at the altar of dereliction, default, negligence and indifference," the Court opined..It was dealing with an application filed by the Principal Commissioner of Income Tax seeking the condonation of a delay of 498 days in filing an appeal under the Income Tax Act.It was argued that if the delay is not condoned, irreparable injury would be caused to the IT department. If the delay is condoned, no prejudice would be caused to the assessee, the IT authority added..The Court termed this argument fallacious, adding that a “so called injury” cannot be accepted as a ground to discard law of limitation.There is not even a whiff of any circumstance to show that it was beyond the control of the revenue to file the appeal on time, the Court opined.The fact that the application was in a cyclostyled proforma in which the number of days of delay was subsequently filled also drew the Court's ire. This amply reflects a total lack of seriousness on the part of the revenue authority, the Court said. “Can such laxity on the part of one of the litigants be ignored so as to snatch away from the other party a right which accrued to it on account of non-filing of appeal in time? The answer, according to us, has to be in the negative," the Court added. .The Court further observed that it was unable to fathom why the State, despite having at its disposal an enormous paraphernalia, is unable to act with due expedition.“Before parting, we feel inclined to record an expectation that all the learned counsel who represent the revenue in this court would sensitize their officers regarding the view taken by the apex court on such issues in the case of Bherulal (supra)," the Court remarked on a parting note. The judges proceeded to dismiss the delay condonation application as well as the appeal as being time barred..Senior Standing Counsel Shailendera Singh with junior standing counsel Dacchita Shahi and Viplav Acharya and advocate Akash Saxena appeared for the Income Tax department.The respondent (National Fertilisers Limited) was represented through advocates Ved Jain, Nischay Kantoor and Soniya Dodeja. .[Read Judgment]